J
justbyfaith
Guest
Hi. I will begin my testimony by saying that I received the gift of tongues in 1986 at a Praise Chapel, but when my parents took me away from that church by moving out of the area, I backslid until December of 1989.
At that time, I was reading a book entitled "Writing with Power". In the book it gave the advice that when you write, there is a demon or stag on your shoulder that you sometimes cooperate with and sometimes struggle with in order to produce "voice" in your writing.
I used the techniques in the poem to write a gruesome poem as an assignment for my Creative Writing class in High School (I was a Senior in 1989-1990).
I received so much applause from the students and then the teacher praised the poem, saying that if he hadn't seen me in the process of writing it, he would have thought that it was written by Edgar Allen Poe or one of the great writers of the past and that I had plagiarized it. He then spoke of how the rhyming was like icing on the cake. When I read the poem, the classroom broke out in applause.
I went home that night thinking that I could use this power that I had to produce fame and fortune for myself. And, because the source of this power was apparently a demon, I was tempted to sell my soul to the devil.
A that point, what I had heard in church in 1986 came flooding back to my memory. "What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul?"
I said to God, "I don't know if You're even real; but I'm going to start reading Your word and doing what it says; and I know that if You're real, You will reveal Yourself to me."
God didn't wait. He came upon me in what I will call waves of liquid love; and I was not the same for a whole year after that. I had escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But a year later, I began to be involved with a girlfriend; and those old lusts began to excite in me once again.
I fulfilled them in the shower the night before I was scheduled to speak a message for my High School Bible Club.
In giving that message, I condemned myself publicly and told the students that I had fallen away and could never be renewed to repentance.
I had told the Lord in prayer, that I was willing to be set forth as an example of someone who had fallen away if it would defeat what I knew to be false doctrine in OSAS doctrine.
So, I came down with a mental illness not long after that. My psyche could not handle the idea that I could never go to heaven.
However, there came a point when I encountered some Oneness Pentecostals; and they gave me a new hope. The Holy Ghost, and remission of sins, is absolutely promised in holy scripture (Acts 2:38-39), to those who repent and receive baptism in Jesus' Name.
I jumped at the opportunity and was baptized.
I can say to all of you verily that from that point forward, I have had no doubts whatsoever as concerning the assurance of my salvation.
It is not that I am trusting in the water to save me.
What I am trusting in is the confession of Jesus before men (Matthew 10:32, Luke 12:8);
For in being baptized in His Name, I identified with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection.
This was a confession of faith that for me was radical and to which there will be no turning back. I believe that I was sealed with the Holy Ghost the moment I came up out of the water, risen with Christ through the faith of the operation of God (Colossians 2:12).
At that time, I was reading a book entitled "Writing with Power". In the book it gave the advice that when you write, there is a demon or stag on your shoulder that you sometimes cooperate with and sometimes struggle with in order to produce "voice" in your writing.
I used the techniques in the poem to write a gruesome poem as an assignment for my Creative Writing class in High School (I was a Senior in 1989-1990).
I received so much applause from the students and then the teacher praised the poem, saying that if he hadn't seen me in the process of writing it, he would have thought that it was written by Edgar Allen Poe or one of the great writers of the past and that I had plagiarized it. He then spoke of how the rhyming was like icing on the cake. When I read the poem, the classroom broke out in applause.
I went home that night thinking that I could use this power that I had to produce fame and fortune for myself. And, because the source of this power was apparently a demon, I was tempted to sell my soul to the devil.
A that point, what I had heard in church in 1986 came flooding back to my memory. "What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul?"
I said to God, "I don't know if You're even real; but I'm going to start reading Your word and doing what it says; and I know that if You're real, You will reveal Yourself to me."
God didn't wait. He came upon me in what I will call waves of liquid love; and I was not the same for a whole year after that. I had escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But a year later, I began to be involved with a girlfriend; and those old lusts began to excite in me once again.
I fulfilled them in the shower the night before I was scheduled to speak a message for my High School Bible Club.
In giving that message, I condemned myself publicly and told the students that I had fallen away and could never be renewed to repentance.
I had told the Lord in prayer, that I was willing to be set forth as an example of someone who had fallen away if it would defeat what I knew to be false doctrine in OSAS doctrine.
So, I came down with a mental illness not long after that. My psyche could not handle the idea that I could never go to heaven.
However, there came a point when I encountered some Oneness Pentecostals; and they gave me a new hope. The Holy Ghost, and remission of sins, is absolutely promised in holy scripture (Acts 2:38-39), to those who repent and receive baptism in Jesus' Name.
I jumped at the opportunity and was baptized.
I can say to all of you verily that from that point forward, I have had no doubts whatsoever as concerning the assurance of my salvation.
It is not that I am trusting in the water to save me.
What I am trusting in is the confession of Jesus before men (Matthew 10:32, Luke 12:8);
For in being baptized in His Name, I identified with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection.
This was a confession of faith that for me was radical and to which there will be no turning back. I believe that I was sealed with the Holy Ghost the moment I came up out of the water, risen with Christ through the faith of the operation of God (Colossians 2:12).
